Subject: Re: Bombay --> Mumbai
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 22:23:45 +0000


Josna, John, Deborah; Thanks for the kind words.

Josna, that's an interesting point below: I believe, at one point, postal 
workers in Bombay did not deliver letters if they were addressed to 
"Bombay". That may be an urban myth, because during my time out of India, I 
have always written the city's name as Bombay on the envelope, and the 
letters have always reached the destination.

I wouldn't necessarily go along with the writer's prescription, that those 
outside India should refer to it by its official name. It reminds me, for 
some reason, of the Kaurava-Pandava story in Mahabharata -- that we may 
fight with one another, but we have a common front when we face the 
outsider!! And why should you, or I, think of ourselves as outsiders to 
Bombay? The virtue of Bombay people like to celebrate is its Manhattan-like 
everyone-belongs-here quality. And it is *that* aspect which the Shiv Sena 
wants to tear apart. It is worth noting that the Shiv Sena has for years 
championed the cause of entry permits to enter the municipal boundaries of 
Bombay, even for Indian citizens from elsewhere in India.

If the rest of the world starts calling it Mumbai, "they" win!

Salil


>A small addition: I remember a conversation in 1998 with a leading Marathi 
>& English writer in Bombay/Mumbai. I remember her saying quite fiercely to 
>me that she had the right to call it Bombay (which she did), but that as 
>someone who lived outside India I had to call it Mumbai, especially in 
>letters to India from abroad, where I had to respect the official Indian 
>government name.
>
>Josna
>
>
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